Features » December 10, 2007

Hanging Hate

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The noose, that symbol of American racism associated with the Jim Crow South, is making a comeback.

Following the notorious Jena, La., incident, a rash of noose-related hate crimes has surfaced around the country, at times in the unlikeliest of places. These cases are not aberrations, but part of an endemic problem.

On Oct. 9, 2007, in New York City, a noose was found hanging from the office door of a black professor at Columbia University Teachers College. On Oct. 10, an NYPD officer found a noose hanging over his locker. On Oct. 11, a noose was found hanging from a light pole in front of a post office near Ground Zero. On Oct. 22, a noose was sent to a high school principal, a black woman, in Brooklyn.

For African Americans, the noose symbolizes racial intimidation, violence and death–and with good reason. “The noose is among the most repugnant of all racist symbols because it is itself an instrument of violence,” noted Judge Robert L. Carter, a black federal district judge, in Williams v. New York City Housing Authority. In this 2001 employment discrimination case, African-American public employees were subjected to a hostile work environment, including the hanging of a noose.

Lynching has been America’s own form of domestic terrorism, columnist George Curry wrote recently in the Philadelphia Inquirer: “Far from being merely a prank, the hanging of nooses harks back to a shameful period in American history. It was not until 1952 that the United States went a whole year without a single lynching.”

Mark Potok, a staff director at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate crimes and hate groups, thinks the current noose hangings are a reaction to Jena. “What the nooses represent is a wider and deeper backlash by whites than people recognize,” he says. “White people think the events in Jena were whitewashed by an evil and politically correct press.”

To track these hate crimes, DiversityInc magazine has initiated “Noose Watch,” which catalogues incidents of what it calls a “dangerous racist trend.” As of Dec. 5, it had collected information on 61 incidents that have occurred since the beginning of 2006. (The New York Times reports that 50 to 60 noose incidents have occurred since the large Sept. 20, 2007 rally in Jena) Most recently:

On Nov. 20, a city employee in Slidell, La., was fired for allegedly hanging a noose at a job site a few days prior.

On Nov. 13, a college student in Orangeburg, S.C., was arrested for hanging a noose in a classroom.

On Nov. 8, in Beekman, La., high school students discovered a raccoon hanging from a noose on their school’s flagpole.

On Oct. 30, a black mannequin with a noose tied around its neck was found in a county landfill building in Sacramento, Calif.

On Oct. 24, a noose was placed around the neck of a bronze statue of Tupac Shakur in Atlanta.

On Oct. 15, a housekeeper at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pa., found a noose hanging in a 10th floor hospital room.

On Oct. 4, a black Verizon employee in Cranberry, Pa., found a doll with a noose tied around its neck, along with a note saying that she did not deserve her promotion.

On Oct. 1, at a construction site in Philadelphia, Pa., a white construction worker held a noose in front of a black co-worker and allegedly said he “wanted to hang someone.”

In October 2007, a noose was found hanging from the exit of a Home Depot store under construction in South Elgin, Ill., along with racist graffiti.

On Sept. 28, a noose was found in the men’s bathroom of the Hempstead, Long Island, police department.

On Sept. 20, two men were arrested in Alexandria, La., for having nooses in the back of their pickup truck, only hours after an anti-racism march in nearby Jena.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the number of hate groups in the United States shot up from 602 to 844 between 2000 and 2006–an increase of 40 percent. The group also found that, based on 2005 Department of Justice data, about 191,000 hate-crime incidents are reported each year. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is handling an increasing number of noose cases alone: 24 since 2001. The number of reported workplace racial harassment cases increased from 3,075 in 1991 to 6,000 in 2006.

“The display of nooses does occur anywhere,” says Lewis Steel, a civil rights attorney at Outten & Golden in New York City. “African Americans who are exposed to this are infuriated by it. It rubs a nerve, whereas with white people it is just not in their experience.”

Steel is representing black and Latino employees in a lawsuit against the New York City Parks Department for racial discrimination and practices–including multiple displays of nooses on city property. He says that combating these incidents in the employment context depends to a large extent on the leadership of the employer.

“Certainly when we originally started the Parks Department case, [former New York City Parks Commissioner Henry] Stern viewed the display of nooses as silly,” Steel says. “He did not send a memo around, and no action was really taken against those who displayed them.”

Similarly, Reed Walters, the district attorney of LaSalle Parish, La., who prosecuted the Jena Six black teens for a schoolyard brawl with a white classmate, reacted to the hanging of the nooses at Jena High School by telling black students they were making too much of the “prank.”

Many black Americans think government officials are treating these noose incidents too lightly.

On Nov. 3, hundreds of people marched in Charleston, W.V., in support of Megan Williams, a 20-year-old black woman whom authorities say was kidnapped, tortured, beaten and raped by six white men and women in a trailer over the course of a week. Williams’ captors also allegedly forced her to eat rat, dog and human feces, and placed a noose around her neck. The six suspects, who were arrested and charged with kidnapping, sexual assault, malicious wounding and battery, have not been charged with hate crimes.

“They just kept saying, ‘This is what we do to niggers down here,’” Williams told the Associated Press.

On Nov. 16, thousands of community activists, led by the Rev. Al Sharpton, marched at the U.S. Department of Justice demanding that the federal government more vigorously prosecute crimes of racial violence.

“When you hang up a noose, it’s no joke to us,” said Sharpton at the march. “Every noose that’s hung should be prosecuted by the law. And we’re going to demand that today.” According to Sharpton, the federal government has relinquished its responsibility to protect civil rights by relying on states to address hate crimes, something he characterized as a “revival of states’ rights.”

In response to the march, Attorney General Michael Mukasey issued this statement: “In recent months, there have been reports of nooses and other symbols of racial and religious hate appearing in schools, workplaces and neighborhoods across the country. These symbols of hate have no place in our great country. … Although there are limitations and challenges in bringing successful hate crimes prosecutions, the department takes each case seriously and is prepared to vindicate the rights of the victims when prosecution is warranted by the facts and by federal law.”

Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) has said that “for too long, the Department of Justice failed to confront the serious questions of injustice, inequality and intolerance raised by the troubling events in Jena.” She advocates restoring professionalism to the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, and calls for strengthening the hate crimes laws and voting laws.

In a letter to Mukasey, presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) wrote, “Unfortunately, this administration–and your predecessors as attorney general–have a poor track record in the area of investigating discrimination against racial minorities, while inexplicably focusing resources on a few, exceptional cases involving white victims.”

Meanwhile, Steel, who has used the legal system to wage the fight against noose-related hate crimes, thinks that community organizing is needed to get the attention of people in power and bring about change.

“There is a real connection between community organizing and leadership. This kind of conduct … is really despicable, so you hope the community should protest against this type of thing. It is hateful and it is stomach turning. You want to see communities organizing so this type of thing doesn’t happen again.”

But why are these racially motivated crimes on the rise at this point in time? Potok suggests that the recent noose incidents reflect not a fringe phenomenon, but a major social problem. “We’re looking at an upsurge in racial nationalism,” says Potok. “What’s going on is a serious backlash against globalization. You have a certain level of economic rage that provides fertile ground for these groups.” He says that with more people of color immigrating to the country, “whites are angry and uneasy.”

According to Potok, these whites who are scapegoating think, “Our country is being stolen from us. The country my white Christian forefathers built is being taken away.” But on Democracy Now!, Malik Shabazz, a member of Black Lawyers for Justice, said: “The hanging of nooses is a sign that there [could] be real bodies under those nooses very soon.”

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If a known white racist kills a black person, and a white person kills another white person, what was the difference in the crimes? This is important, because "hate crime" laws are based on the difference. If all other details of the crimes are identical (method, weapon, pre-meditaion), the racist could still be charged with a "hate crime" and serve a tougher sentence. The only difference is the two murderers are: THEIR THOUGHTS. An advocate of hate crime legislation is an advocate of the policing of thoughts. I don't know about you, but I feel that what goes on in someones head, no matter how disturbing, should be protected from the government. Violent actions have always been, and should always be, appropriately prosecuted. But the moment the government started regulating thought was the beginning of a very slippery slope.
Kuya: There is a huge difference in threatening violence with an archaic "weapon" such as a noose and a bomb vest! That's like comparing a gun to a nuclear bomb. Of course the punishments for the threats should be different. Assuming "noose incidents" are actually on the rise, I doubt any blacks seriously fear for thier lives. Actual hangings are few and far between. It is thousands (if not more) of times more likely for a black person to be shot by another black person than to be hanged by a white. Yes, display of a noose is a disgusting practice, and I do feel for those people who are reminded "there are people in this world who want me dead". But you can't outlaw speech because you don't agree with it! Noose hangers should be ostracized and ashamed of themselves. But not thrown in jail. There is NO constitutional guarantee against having your feelings hurt, or "an emotional body blow". It would be impossible to enforce such a law.
The real problem is the (accurate) perception among white people that blacks are held to lower standards than whites. The civil rights movement should've stopped at equality. Instead they insist on institutionalizing lower standards for minorities so they can "get ahead" and "make up for past discrepancies". This is creating great resentment among whites who are turned down for anything from a promotion to a seat at a university.Posted by LeeJ on 2007-12-26 07:55:06

The whole premise of this article, on which motivations for noose-hanging are based, is apparently largely false.*
This, along with the general history of related deception referenced by Cwell above, leads one to be suspicious that a large percentage of the noose incidents may be more a tactic by the supposed victims themselves, rather than being an indication of some kind of measurable change in racial attitudes toward blacks by whites.
How disappointing.
* "As with the Duke Lacrosse case, the truth about Jena will eventually be known. But the town of Jena isn't expecting any apologies from the media.* They will probably never admit their error and have already moved on to the next "big" story. Meanwhile in Jena, residents are getting back to their regular routines, where friends are friends regardless of race. Just as it has been all along."
* You're building upon, and thereby helping to crystalize and perpetuate myths in the minds of the unknowing, David.Posted by Natalie on 2007-12-21 21:21:48

Marshalldoc does bring up some interesting points, albeit accidentally. One really might wonder: which countries are "justest"? Which are the most corrupt? Which countries suffer from racism the most, which the least?
While the US is not perfect (after all, it is a very diverse nation of imperfect people), it certainly *claims* to be a just country. Perhaps a fellow like Marshalldoc can identify a country in say Africa that might be "equitablest" compared to the US? Or in the middle east? Or even in Asia. . .
The US seems to be firmly in the rarefied few countries that embraces the concepts that Marshalldoc seems to value. Given that s/he lives in the US, i hope that s/he appreciates what good fortune they have, being born here. I know i do.Posted by wolf on 2007-12-17 07:18:23

Ahh, and the true racism comes out. Thanks for THAT awakening marshalldoc. Unfortunately for you and your liberal thinking mentality, mdren68 is absolutly correct in stating that several of these incidents were perpetuated by the victims. Unfortunately also is that your liberal racist mentality prevents you from being able to comprehend the FACTS. I have taken the liberty to link you to a couple of articles explaining these situations to an extent. I doubt you will read them, and am sure even if you do will find some way to disregard the truths explained in them.
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WalterEWilliams/2007/12/12/racial_hoaxes_and_the_naacp
http://xpress.sfsu.edu/archives/news/000424.htmlPosted by Cwell on 2007-12-14 13:57:42

Gosh mdren68! How completely foolish of me...
Of course every thing's wonderful here in the bestest most justest and equitablest country on the planet. Naturally there's no racism... it's just hypersensitivity of a few people who, no matter how great things really are, just can't be happy without complaining.
Naturally, the climate's just fine and it's going to stay that way forever because the white god in his white heaven has decreed it will be so.
Of course America treats all its detainees just like we'd like our family to be treated if they were detained and all that nasty news from Iraq is just more naysayers who look to denigrate anything America does.
Certainly our laws and business practices don't discriminate against anyone except those who are too stupid to do the right things every right-thinking American knows they should do and the poor are only poor because white jesus feels that's the way things should be.
NOT!
mdren68, someday you'll undergo an awakening, voluntary or otherwise, and it won't be pretty. And I'm sorry, truly.Posted by Marshalldoc on 2007-12-14 11:59:39

Um, I think some truth needs to be brought to light. Most of those noose incidents were faked. Perpetrated by the 'victims' themselves. Just research each story and you will see that after everything was said and done, the 'victim' was the one who hung the noose.
There isn't as much racism in America as you think. Consider that there are over 250 million Americans:
How many reported incidents?
How many actually perpetrated by a racist?
Most of the racist I've met, were the people looking for racism. Case in point:
A co-worker asked a second co-worker, upon seeing him in the shop welding, "I did not know you knew how to weld." Response of second co-worker, "You think because I'm black I don't know how to weld?"
Who was the racist?
My 2Posted by mdren68 on 2007-12-14 08:54:01

Marshalldoc is exactly correct. When the US turns fascist and begins the systematic extermination of Jews, blacks, whites or whatever group it targets as ok to hate and kill, i would say Posted by wolf on 2007-12-11 07:41:52

"Lynching has been America’s own form of domestic terrorism, columnist George Curry wrote recently in the Philadelphia Inquirer: 'Far from being merely a prank, the hanging of nooses harks back to a shameful period in American history. It was not until 1952 that the United States went a whole year without a single lynching.'"
Actually this is a good point. To not recognize the emotional body-blow that is intended by using nooses as a "prank" (as though it's all in good humor or something... how idiotic, Mr. Walters, you should be humiliated to have uttered such a thing!)...
...using them to threaten Af-Ams is to maintain the racially divisive blind spot that disables the most basic level of identification, and identification is the one single factor that erodes racist stupidity fastest and most directly.
I wonder how many white Americans would regard a fake explosive vest as a "prank", if they were used in similar fashion by, say, someone who took exception to the war. Maybe he could wear it into the local Starbuck's and have a grand old time scaring the customers.
The intent would be identical, to cause the marks to have that sick, horrible feeling of being targeted, to know that some nut-job wants to fuck with their heads in that deep, primal sort of way that terrorists specialize in.
But of course none of the "pranksters" would really put a noose around a human neck, or strap themselves with explosives for-real. It's just a prank. All in good fun, right Mr. Walters?
Crazier, stupider, uglier, meaner. It's like we're in a contest to see just how low we can go.Posted by Kuya on 2007-12-10 18:10:51

Evidently "wolf" failed to read the article closely or else chooses to maintain the 'crazy few' theory despite the abundant evidence that racial hatred is growing by leaps and bounds in American society.
This 'growth industry' isn't confined to only racist Whites (of which there are plenty) but is also evident in the 'race wars' in Los Angeles where Latinos are conducting 'ethnic cleansing' of Blacks from Latino neighborhoods... evidently on orders of 'la eme'.
Recent Supreme Court rulings, and those of lower courts, have reversed the Government's stand against overt racism as long as it's called something conveniently vague or Orwellian, and serve to increase the amount of segregation in our society and the degree of discrimination in access to goods & services.
These same kinds of trends were evident in Germany in the 1930's as were so-called 'pranks' (against Germany's Jews back then) that are that bygone era's equivalent of nooses found in workplaces and elsewhere. And, as history showed us then, Malik Shabazz's comments on DemocracyNow, are exactly right.
Without a strong, concerted, resistance to the mainstreaming of hate, the next step - once conditions are ripe - will be bodies hanging from poles exactly as forecast in William Pierce's racist apocalyptic "The Turner Diaries".
And, just as we heard from 'surprised' Germans in 1945, people like "wolf" will be heard to say "I never thought it would go that far"...Posted by Marshalldoc on 2007-12-10 17:11:50